Politics of Domination

This book examines the political subordination and repression of one or more peoples by another people and its elites within the same polity. This sort of domination is surprisingly more common than we may think, given the value we are said to place on multiculturalism, equality, and human freedom. If we use one plausible proxy for domination - the intentional, targeted, and active exclusion by state authorities of an ethnic community from political power - then forty-two of the world's countries in 2021, some 23 per cent, practised domination, and a total of seventy-two communities were dominated. Domination is seen here as an intentional strategy, not simply an unintended consequence of a dominant people's numbers or power. Correspondingly, the book identifies domination regimes by the “stratagems” they use to dominate. It explains how such regimes are established, maintained, and end. The book proposes two core theses. First, little can be understood about the rise and fall of domination regimes unless their domestic and external (international) environments, including the interaction between them, are considered. In particular, it is argued that dominated peoples are unlikely to be able to escape from domination by themselves but are likely to need help from outside. Second, domination should not be considered, as some have claimed, a preferred “alternative” to even worse strategies, such as genocide or expulsions, but, rather, as something that facilitates these alternatives.

John McGarry is Stephen Gyimah Distinguished University Professor, Department of Political Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada's top civic honour, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.